Where We Stand
by delcatty546
Summary: The story of Maxie and Archie: how two young boys grow into the men who would seek to control the forces of nature for their visions of a better world.
1. Unfamiliar Ground

**I know, I know, I'm a horrible person for starting a new multi-chapter fic given my track record with them but I couldn't let this go. Pokemon ORAS was so much more developed in terms of story and characters and I just couldn't ignore the plot bunny anymore so Where We Stand was born. I'd also like to thank Liz Hollow because her stories (do check them out) are part of the reason I got so enraptured with Archie's new characterisation and Maxie soon followed. Enjoy :) **

**Chapter 1: Unfamiliar Ground**

_15 June 1992_

_I suppose when I make a name for myself, the world will want to know what young Maximus was like, hence my reason for writing this journal. I cannot be expected to recount my childhood for the masses but they might be able to publish this as an autobiography. The world will see how ambitious and what a genius I was even at seven._

_The most eventful thing that happened today was that I saw the Machoke Movers van outside the house across the street. It was sold after old Mrs Keppel passed away last month. Mother insisted I go over with her to introduce ourselves. _

_The neighbours have a son my age and our mothers seem set on making us friends. Good luck with that. School has taught me that most kids my age would rather snort on crayons or watch mindless cartoons than read a good book. It doesn't help that the idiot shortened my name. I am the great Maximus Frances Thompson, how dare he call me Maxie? More importantly, I have to question Mother's judgement. She arranged for the neighbours to come over the day after tomorrow, even inviting their son over earlier to "play". I dread it._

_Yours truly_

_The Great Maximus _

"Come along Maximus, it is the polite thing to do."

"I don't want to Mother, I am perfectly content with my book. I don't see the point."

"Maximus, do not make me carry you there. You know how undignified that will look." The boy gaped at his mother's threat. She would never. It would be undignified for her too. After thirty seconds of staring, Angelina Thompson made to scoop her son into her arms and Maximus jumped up.

"Alright alright but can we hurry? I was just getting to the page on meteors," he grumbled. Smirking to herself, Angelina unlocked the door, petting Penelope the guard Poochyena as they made their way across the street. Maximus shuffled grumpily behind her, muttering under his breath but still pausing to ruffle Penelope's fur.

A woman stood by the front door, directing the Machoke Movers and their trainers towards the hall. Angelina's heels signalled her of her approach and the woman turned around, a puzzled look on her face.

Seeing this, Angelina offered a warm smile and a hand. "Hello, my name is Angelina Thompson, and this is my son Maximus. We live just across the street from you and would like to welcome you to our neighbourhood."

At this, the woman's face softened. "Cassidy Schemmel. You can call me Cass. Thank you for your hospitality." The difference between Cass and Angelina could not be greater. Where Cass' hair fell in loose black curls, Angelina held her bright red hair in a tight bun. Angelina was angular with sharp features, but Cass was like the sea, fluidity and curves everywhere. Angelina's smart red suit was also a stark contrast to Cass' tank top and slacks. Yet somehow, the two women were hitting it off like old friends.

Meanwhile Maximus' eyes scanned the house lazily. His mother had promised this would not take too long. As though sensing his boredom, Cass turned to him with a huge smile. "Oh Maximus, I have a son just your age too. Would you like to meet him?" Maximus raised an eyebrow, about to retort about the immaturity of those of his age group when Angelina gave him a sharp look.

"Of course he'd like to, wouldn't you Maximus?" Her voice hinted that it was not really a question. Resigned, he just nodded and Cass' smile widened.

"Archie honey!" she called. "Come over and meet our neighbours!" Footsteps pounded on the stairs and a crash had both Angelina and Maximus wincing while Cass waved it off. "Happens all the time," she said, seeing their faces. Fifteen seconds later, a little boy skidded down the driveway, brushing off not-so-imaginary dust. Cass laughed as she helped to brush off the dust and Archie beamed at the Thompsons.

Cass grinned at him and introduced Angelina and Maximus. "Hi Aunty Angie! Hi Maxie!" Archie greeted, proud of how quickly he had bestowed new nicknames on them. Angelina smiled and bent down to inspect the child, noting how much he resembled his mother with his tanned skin and dark hair.

Maximus huffed. "My name is Maximus, not Maxie." Under his breath, he muttered something about immature brats not knowing the importance of names. Archie either did not hear anything or chose to ignore it, still sporting a grin the Cheshire Purrloin would be proud of.

As Angelina and Cass chattered on, Archie threw an endless number of questions at Maximus, who would give curt replies in the hope that he'd take a hint.

Archie didn't.

"Maxie which school do you go to? Will we be going to the same school? Do you like playing with boats? Is the beach nice? Do you want to go play on it? I love beaches! Do you?"

Maximus had to wonder how Archie did not seem to need to breathe and the constant stream of words from his mouth was starting to give him a migraine. All he wanted was for the boy to shut up for five seconds. Angelina, to her credit, seemed to pick up on her son's distress.

"You know Cass, I'm terribly sorry but Maximus seems rather eager to get back to his book. Perhaps we could arrange another day where the boys can play?" she asked, looking apologetic for Maximus' rudeness. That was something she would have to correct later.

Cass nodded in understanding. "Of course, I probably should have warned Maximus that Archie can be quite overwhelming. How does the day after tomorrow sound? We should be all settled in by then and my husband Mike and I would love to have your family over for dinner."

At the word 'dinner', Archie's ears perked up. "Maaaaaaaaaaaa, what's for dinner today?" he asked, bouncing over and relieving Maximus of his presence.

"We'll be eating out dear, the kitchen is still being unpacked. How does the Sea Shack sound?"

Angelina raised an eyebrow at this. Clearly if the Schemmels were moving into Coral Avenue, they could at least afford to eat decent food. Angelina Thompson believed in eating only at home or at restaurants, not in a diner that had somehow managed to conquer the Hoenn region. Feeling that the Schemmels ought to know quality food, she spoke up.

"You know Cass, since you're still unpacking your kitchen, we wouldn't want to trouble you with making dinner for us. Why don't you and your family come to our place instead?"

"We wouldn't want to trouble you with that," Cass replied, looking uncertain.

"Hush, it's no trouble at all and we won't take no for an answer. In fact, why not let Archie come over earlier to play with Maximus?"

An uneasy smile settled over Cass' face. "If you're sure then," she said.

"Excellent. We will be expecting to see at seven on the seventeenth. Archie can come over at five after Maximus finished his violin lessons."

And just like that, without any chance to argue, Maximus' fate was sealed. He thought of the wrecking ball disguised as Archie in his house, in his room, full of precious, fragile models and displays and let out a quiet moan.


	2. Making Waves

**Well look who is back with a new chapter! I figure if try to stick to a regular updating schedule, I might actually write more often and not lose momentum. Otherwise the plot bunny just turns into a dust bunny. Still in the process of figuring out how often updates should be though. **

**Side note, I made a few changes to the previous chapter so the story would flow better.**

**Chapter 2: Making Waves**

17 June 1992

"Now listen Archie, when you go over to play with Maxie, will you please try not to break anything?" Cass said as she smoothened out her son's clothes.

She bit her lip as she imagined the multitude of ways that things could go wrong. As friendly as Angelina was, she really did not want to cause trouble within two days of moving to Lilycove. There was also the fact that anything in the Thompsons' home was unlikely to be easily replaced. Despite being the same size as every other house in the neighbourhood, the Thomspons' stood out like a sore thumb, from the wrought iron gate to the marble Gyrados fountainheads. Cass shuddered at how much each fountainhead could cost.

"I'll try as much as I can Ma," he said seriously, or as seriously as any seven year old could.

"That's my pirate," she said, ruffling his hair affectionately. Cass took his little hand in hers and walked towards the edge of the street. "And at streets we say?"

"Right left right!" shouted Archie, his head swivelling in the respective directions. Satisfied that there were no cars driving through, the pair crossed the street, arms swinging excitedly. Archie jumped up to ring the doorbell but still missed. Seeing this, Cass laughed.

"Honey, your arms are long enough to ring the doorbell on your own."

As though doubting her, Archie stretched one arm above him, deliberately hovering just below the button. "No they're not," he sang, "You can't always be right Ma."

Smirking, Cass grabbed his wrist and pushed the stubby finger onto the button. "Oh I don't know about that. I'd still say mas are always right." Archie pouted for a nanosecond before the doors swung open. A Poochyena bounded up to him and tackled him, but before Cass could pull out a Pokeball, she was licking his face happily and Cass relaxed.

"Penelope! That's not how guard dogs behave!" Maximus jogged up and pulled Penelope up by the scruff of her neck. She whined in annoyance and stalked off, her tail between her legs.

"I apologise. Penelope is still being trained," he muttered, offering a hand to help Archie up. "Good afternoon Aunt Cassidy, Archie," he nodded at each of them. Angelina appeared behind the door and after exchanging pleasantries, Cass waved goodbye. Angelina ushered the boys into the house and up the stairs, urging them to play nice while she prepared dinner, by which she meant supervising the staff and ensuring they would produce a meal worthy of featuring on a Kalosian restaurant's menu.

With great reluctance, Maximus led Archie to his room. "I don't have anything to _play_ with mind you," he said as he pushed the door open.

Archie would beg to differ. Maximus' room looked like how Archie always imagined outer space would. The walls were painted with purple, black and blue with silver specks that resembled stars, even twinkling from different angles. To complete the effect, a mobile hung from the ceiling with planets orbiting around the ceiling light, cleverly designed as a sun. In a glass cabinet laid several carefully assembled model rockets.

"As you can see, I want to be an astronaut in the future. That is why I study hard and do not _play_," said Maximus, spitting the last word out as though it was a dirty word. "Entertain yourself somehow because I want to finish my book."

"Are you kidding me? You've got loads of cool toys here!" Archie replied as he lifted up one of Maximus' precious model rockets, the RQZA-200 and began running around the room, using his mouth to mimic the sounds of a rocket flying. Maximus stared horrified. Did the boy not understand that he was holding the epitome of human genius in his hands? The RQZA-200 was the first successful rocket Mossdeep Space Centre had launched and here was his ignorant neighbour reducing it to a common toy.

When he found his voice again, Maximus was yelling at Archie to put down his model, not toy. To his relief, Archie did that but he did not expect Archie to shove his face into his.

"Oh lighten up a little, Maxie. You can't study all the time! You need some fun!" he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air, hands that Maximus thanked Arceus for, were empty. With that, he slammed the book shut and stowed it into the bookshelf. Maximus twitched as he realised the book was out of the usual alphabetical order and glared at Archie.

"So what do you suppose we do until dinner is ready?" he asked, glaring hostilely at the boy who dared to interrupt his reading, and insinuate there were better things to be done. What could be better than accumulating knowledge? Knowledge was power and Maximus swore he would one day be more powerful than his father.

"Well for starters, have you ever been an astronaut?"

Maximus scoffed. "I'm seven. Which idiot thinks a seven year old could be an astronaut?"

"No, no," Archie corrected. "I mean, have you ever imagined what an astronaut's life is like? Have you tried to live it? Pretended you were an astronaut and made believe?"

At that, Maximus raised an eyebrow. "That sounds stupid," he said at last. Archie shrugged, saying that he would never be able to be a real astronaut if he did not try, if he was _scared _of imagining what life would be like. Or maybe, Maximus just could not do such a simple thing.

Archie grinned when he saw the challenging glint in Maximus' eyes. That seemed to have done the trick. It was always easy for him to get people to do things, what he needed was the right trigger and usually it was a challenge.

"Oh yeah? Let's do this stupid thing then. Don't go around thinking you're the only one who can _imagine_."

And so the two boys spent the next couple of hours pretending to be astronauts. As Jeeves, the Thompsons' butler, knocked on the room door to call the boys down for dinner, Archie announced that The Great Maxie, coincidentally a portmanteau of their names, had returned to Earth safely and that future explorations would follow.

Maximus would never admit that it was actually fun, to live out a whole pretend life and not dismiss it as silly daydreaming. Neither would he admit that for the first time, he might have enjoyed another child's company


End file.
